Holly and Tom Eating and Drinking in Philadelphia

Welcome Fellow Librarians! #alamw14

With the American Library Association’s Midwinter Meeting coming to Philadelphia at the end of this month, Holly and I decided to begin compiling lists of Philly-related things to help our librarian friends make the most of their visit. We are both big fans of Philadelphia’s restaurant and bar scene and have plenty of recommendations.

Most of the things we’ll post about will be places we have first hand knowledge of, although we will include some places that we’ve heard enough good things about that we feel comfortable recommending.

If you’re coming to Philly for the conference, feel free to ask us any questions. We’d be happy to answer or point you in the right direction.

Speaking of coming to Philly, getting around the city is pretty easy. Philadelphia is a very walkable place and has pretty good public transportation. One organization, SEPTA, handles all of the public transportation within the city. You really don’t need a car unless you are looking to get out of the city.

The Convention Center is a little over 10 miles from the airport. A taxi will mostly likely cost just shy of $30. We normally take the train which runs every 20 minutes. A one way ticket costs $8.00 during peak weekday hours ($7.00 evening/weekend). If you are staying near the Convention Center, you probably want to get off at the Market East Station. If you are staying west of the Convention Center, you want to get off at Suburban Station.

Philadelphia has two subway lines: the Market-Frankford line (blue) and the Broad Street (orange) line. The Market-Frankford line runs east and west along Market Street which is just a block south of the Convention Center. This line is only underground through center city and is an elevated line elsewhere, so you may hear people refer to it as The El. The Broad Street line runs north and south along Broad Street. The western entrance to the convention center is right on Broad Street.

The city also has a number of trolleys (green) and buses. You can find more information at the Septa site.

Unless you plan on traveling the city extensively, your best bet is to buy tokens which will work on the buses, subways and trolleys. Tokens cost $1.80 each but have a $2.25 cash value, so you can save some money by using tokens instead of cash (Tokens can be purchased from machines at most subway stations, or from a ticket counter at Market East or Suburban Station). The train takes tickets, which you can buy at a ticket counter, but you can also pay the conductor in cash.